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throughput, customer satisfaction and, indirectly, better design of products that are easier to manufacture.

Next operation as customer (NOAC). NOAC helps to improve the quality, cost, and cycle time of white-collar jobs and can therefore be applied to all service organizations as well as to support services in manufacturing companies. It transforms vertical management into horizontal, breaking down departmental walls with cross-functional teams, and revolutionizing business processes. It replaces evaluation by supervisors with internal customer evaluation. The process is as follows:

1.Establish a steering committee and improvement teams, and identify the process owner.

2.Identify the process problems; quantify their impact on quality, cost, cycle time and morale.

3.Identify internal customers and their priority requirements; obtain agreement on internal suppliers’ ability to meet them.

4.Determine the frequency of feedback from internal customers as scorekeepers, and the consequences of meeting or not meeting customer requirements.

5.Make a flowchart of the entire process.

6.Determine the average cycle time for each process step and the total cycle time.

7.Separate non-value-added steps from value-added ones and estimate the reduction in steps and cycle time if the non-value-added steps could be removed.

8.Eliminate or reduce the non-value-added steps using tools such as field analysis, value engineering, design of experiments, process design, and job redesign.

9.Examine the feasibility of a different approach to the business process, including elimination of processes by using value engineering and other creativity tools.

10.Conduct management reviews of internal customer scores and track progress against well-established business parameters.

21.6 ISO 9000 as a vehicle to TQM

ISO 9000 is a series of international standards for quality systems recognized and adopted worldwide.7 In December 2000 the standards were updated and replaced by ISO 9000:2000, which any consultant advising on TQM should be aware of. About 100 countries have adopted ISO 9000 or its equivalent as national standards. Adherence to ISO 9000 has in some cases become mandatory for companies wanting to apply for public sector contracts, sell medical or telecommunications equipment, and similar.

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ISO 9000 can be used for external quality assurance purposes and can be considered a foundation or “starter kit” for an organization establishing a continuous improvement process. It provides guidelines on establishing systems for managing quality products or services. ISO requires organizations to document practices that affect the quality of their products and services. Organizations are then expected to adhere to the procedures to gain and maintain certification. ISO 9000 standards focus on generating confidence in product conformance and on process management with the customer as the driving force. The December 2000 version stresses eight quality management principles on which the standards are based: customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decisionmaking, and mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers.

Among the changes made in the latest version are a reduced number of standards; explicit requirements for achieving customer satisfaction and continuous improvement; a more logical structure; an approach based on managing organizational processes; standards that are easier to use by the service sector and by small businesses; and the possibility of going beyond certification to achieve satisfaction not just of customers, but of all interested parties, such as employees, shareholders and society as a whole. However, since the new ISO standards have only recently been introduced, we will refer to earlier experience in integrating ISO with TQM, which remains relevant also under the new ISO system.

The certification process

If an organization wants to be become ISO 9000 certified, it has to be evaluated by an independent auditor, who assesses whether it is “safe to drive” its goods and services in other organizations. If the quality system is found reliable, the organization will be registered and given a certificate. The requirements an organization has to meet to be registered are what most business people would consider common-sense business practices.

There are at least four ways to go about documenting for ISO 9000:

●Hire a consultant to come into the organization to document the processes.

●Assign someone within the organization (possibly an internal consultant) to accomplish this task.

●Buy ISO documentation already complete (plug-and-go). Some businesses sell quality system procedures for each process required by the standard. Companies that are starting up may wish to adopt this approach, since they can change each documented procedure or work instruction to fit their environment.

●Have the process owners document their own process (this is probably the best way).

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The most typical path to certification (or registration) is as follows:

1.Start by securing top management commitment and involvement, develop teams and team spirit.

2.Conduct ISO 9000 assessment. Undertake a preparation process, which entails understanding the requirements, assessing current compliance (gap analysis), establishing an internal audit system and documenting processes.

3.Get or develop a quality assurance manual. This is a good way to get all the necessary documentation together.

4.Conduct education and training. Everyone, from top to bottom, needs training in understanding the ISO 9000 vocabulary, requirements, role of the quality manual, and the benefits that will be derived from the system. They also need to be aware of the actual day-to-day process of upgrading and improving procedures.

5.Prepare document of work instructions. Processes that have been improved will need new documentation. Once completed, this manual should outline every process that affects the quality of the finished product.

6.The final step in the ISO 9000 programme is an audit by a companychosen registrar, to verify that the system is working as described in the quality manual and that it meets ISO 9000 requirements. The audit system includes a first-party audit and a third-party audit. The first-party audit is performed internally by a trained person according to the established standards and documentation. The third-party audit involves independent reviews and registration by an external body. Second-party audits, which are performed by the customer at a supplier’s location, are not necessary if the supplier is ISO 9000 registered.

Some limitations of ISO 9000

ISO 9000 certification does not guarantee success in business. The focus is often on paperwork, which may not directly benefit the firm. Registration can be expensive and has unfortunately become a vehicle to increase consulting revenue. The majority of registrations come as a result of customer demands, rather than from internal needs to improve quality. The true value of ISO 9000 registration lies in using the standard’s structure to improve or reengineer processes. The pararaph on documentation is an ideal place to start consulting in process improvement, since it contains the requirements for the structure needed to begin improvement. Up to 80 per cent of the businesses that fail to attain the standard on their first attempt flounder because of some aspects of the documentation paragraph.

Consultants should be aware of the most common limitations, problems and complaints from organizations about ISO 9000, such as:

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●ISO does not focus on a company’s results and performance, or the extent of market complaints, the rate of defects, or the amount of sales following the installation of a quality system. Rather it assesses what activities are managed and in what ways.

●ISO assesses not the technology content and level of the goods produced but the quality system instituted for their production. Furthermore, it does not indicate whether the product conforms to technical standards, but examines the nature of the quality systems.

●The registration process is expensive (for small companies it could cost about US$25,000 and for large ones up to $1,000,000) and requires a mountain of paperwork.

●Some experts believe that ISO 9000 has become a pursuit of a quality certificate rather than a pursuit of quality. It focuses too much on the company and not enough on its customers.

●Some people believe that ISO discourages free thinking, employee empowerment and creativity. The standards focus rather on process management, and give very little attention to the human side of quality.

There have been proposals from different quarters that there should be more industry-specific standards, and that registers should be subject to more regulations, which would streamline the process and increase the effectiveness of registration in assuring the quality of products and services. Also, there is a trend towards less emphasis on ISO 9000 registration. The newly updated ISO 9000 standards took into consideration the above concerns. However, it is not our objective to analyse ISO 9000 standards in detail; for the purpose of this chapter, we consider them as a vehicle to move towards TQM.

From ISO 9000 to TQM

The above-mentioned problems of ISO 9000 do not mean that it should be ignored as a consulting instrument in quality improvement. ISO 9000 can be regarded as a prerequisite for successful TQM. The prior existence of a successfully operating QA system can help to maintain the improvements achieved by TQM. ISO 9000 could easily be incorporated within and used for TQM, by upgrading quality assurance and incorporating the ISO elements into TQM in a “friendly” manner.8

Thus, after achieving ISO 9000 registration, managers and consultants should aim to move towards TQM. After registration, it should be much easier to promote significance of quality in business management, develop a long-term quality policy, upgrade goal setting through TQM, focus attention on positive results, and develop a culture and mechanisms of continuous improvement. Useful additions to the ISO processes would be to empower employees in decision-making and self-management; move faster into such TQM areas as new product development, building quality design into processes, improving cross-functional cooperation, and human resource development in the concept of and methodologies for total quality.

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